Keith Olbermann suspension/ MSNBC woes

[Guest Speed Racer]

And by the way...why is there more of an outcry here about Olbermann being suspended than Juan Williams being fired over at NPR?

 

He was talked about in other political threads, but Olbermann has been much more of a topic of discussion there than Juan ever was. No sense in trying to make anything out of that.

 

As for wondering whether Olbermann was fired as a commentator or journalist - he violated the terms of his employment and he took a chance that his employer wouldn't care. Oops. Certainly not the first person to make that mistake.

[bjorn_skurj]

Call me old-fashioned, but when you start giving sums of cash to politicians, you go from being a journalist or a commentator to a propagandist. One wonders if this goes on at other cable news networks. Oh, wait - http://mediamatters.org/blog/201008160046, but you can tell just by watching. As you kind of can at MSNBC. Jesus, is it too much to ask that we have a No-Bullshit News Channel?

And in case you were wondering, I think NPR did the exact wrong thing by firing Juan Williams.

[caliber66]

He was talked about in other political threads, but Olbermann has been much more of a topic of discussion there than Juan ever was. No sense in trying to make anything out of that.

 

As for wondering whether Olbermann was fired as a commentator or journalist - he violated the terms of his employment and he took a chance that his employer wouldn't care. Oops. Certainly not the first person to make that mistake.

Olbermann wasn't fired.

 

Yeah, Olbermann is a guy who has his own primetime show, and Juan Williams is a freelance political commentator who makes the rounds. It's like wondering why more people talk about when Brad Pitt goes to rehab than DJ Qualls. Crow, I plan events for a membership association. We deal with the military, mostly. Insofar as some aspects of my job involve coordinating senior military officers' attendance at events that will include industry attendees, I am intimately familiar with DoD ethics guidelines. I understand how one might expect different behavior from professional political commentators. Clearly, however, it is an accepted practice in the industry - again, Olbermann was not disciplined for giving money to political campaigns, but for failing to disclose that he had.

 

Bjorn, I understand your position as well. I think giving money to the one guy immediately after he was on his show was extremely poor judgment, but I don't otherwise have any problem generally with people in Olbermann's profession giving money to political candidates as long as they obey the law and their own professional/corporate guidelines. I agree about Juan Williams.

[Guest Speed Racer]

Fired, suspended - same ending either way. AndI think NPR did the right thing about Juan, if for no other reason than to remain a source of news that doesn't employ goo-spouting boobs. I mean, besides Garrison Keillor.

[bleedorange]

Olbermann has already been reinstated.

[lost highway]

There was a really interesting conversation on the Daily Show last week between John Stewart and a Fox pundit. Basically John was suggesting that MSNBC being the liberal narrative to counter Foxes conservative narrative might not be as helpful as one might think. It definitely seems to put them in line for adding to the whole Confederacy of Dunces element we have going on in our political dialog in the U.S.

 

Olbermann can be a bit silly, and obviously too holier-than-thou for a pundit that's throwing political donations around, but he just can't compete with the utter insanity of Glenn Beck, and Hannity. He's got a definite bias but I have yet to see the left generate a popular idiot who is as polarizing as the whole Beck, Limbaugh etc crew.

[bjorn_skurj]

Yeah, but MSNBC has Chris Jansing, who is as hot as uranium heading into critical mass and has been ever since she was Chris Kapostasy back in Albany.

[lost highway]

I'll have to watch for that. I would love to see someone take my bias to the point of hilarious parody. Or maybe that would just make me mad.....

[Moss]

Could be just my own bias but it seems to me MSNBC viewers at least realize it's a left leaning station, Fox news watchers actually seem to believe it's fair and balanced. Maybe I'm wrong, I'm just going by 2 data points, myself and my dad.

[Magnetized]

Everybody may have seen this a while back, but just in case you missed it, all this talk about Keith Olbermann has reminded me of this hilarious parody from Ben Affleck on SNL. If you're missing Keith, maybe this will tide you over

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/02/saturday-night-lives-olbe_n_140102.html

[The High Heat]

Olbermann and MSNBC part ways.

[dark]

1st Olberman wasnt a Journalist he was a bomb thrower for the Left .. On one hand I hate to see him go because the occasions when I could take the time to stomach him, he was like watching a Train Wreck.. I also hate to see him go because I like free speech and even if I cant stand what a person says, I still think that person should have a soap box to scream from ... he will just find a smaller box is all. The market of ideas and the market of the economy have both spoken and he and his network are not profiting anyone. Good Riddance and Good Day... Day 1 of no Olby!

[ih8music]

3 days after the Comcast/NBC merger goes through and almost immediately after NBC chief Jeff Zucker steps down.

 

It'll be interesting to see where he lands.

[tugmoose]

From the AP story:

 

"He said he was grateful to the network that he was given time to sign off, noting that when he left ESPN in the 1990s, he was given 30 seconds — cut in half at the last minute to get in tennis results."

 

Keith, let me tell you a secret: That's the whole reason ESPN exists - to provide tennis scores.

[tugmoose]

 

It'll be interesting to see where he lands.

Perhaps he can parlay his sportscasting experience into something, just like someone else we know.

[Good Old Neon]

1st Olberman wasnt a Journalist he was a bomb thrower for the Left .. On one hand I hate to see him go because the occasions when I could take the time to stomach him, he was like watching a Train Wreck.. I also hate to see him go because I like free speech and even if I cant stand what a person says, I still think that person should have a soap box to scream from ... he will just find a smaller box is all. The market of ideas and the market of the economy have both spoken and he and his network are not profiting anyone. Good Riddance and Good Day... Day 1 of no Olby!

 

 

And which network, may I ask, is the market of ideas profiting from? Fox makes a tidy little profit, yet its viewers are less informed than folks who get their news elsewhere.

[The High Heat]

Perhaps he can parlay his sportscasting experience into something, just like someone else we know.

He might be limited to sports for awhile. Or radio. From the NY Times:

 

Mr. Olbermann did not discuss any future plans, but NBC executives said one term of his settlement would keep him from moving to another network for an extended period of time.